//------------------------------// // 6 Hours Later... // Story: Haylo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Ponies // by Chaotic Conundrums //------------------------------// ---New Manebasa Streets, Hayari District--- A low humming drifted through the splintered glass of a lone drop pod, into the ears of an unconscious pegasus. The humming was just loud enough for her to grasp consciousness. "Mmh, Angel...? It's a bit early to be awake isn't it...?" she mumbled, stretching. When her hooves felt the cold metal of the pod, reality once again came slamming back. She pressed herself up against the cracked windows of the hatch to see a pair of Phantom dropships drifted overhead. Her HUD flickered, still recovering from the crash, and her health meter was a pale orange to show she'd been hurt. The viewscreens that had previously held Dash and Spitfire's faces were now pools of static, and the other displays were either pitch-black or too broken to display anything. Once Fluttershy had examined her pod, a notification popped up reading 'Initiate emergency release' as several buttons lit up green, illuminating the pod. She waited until the dropships were out of view, then began pressing the lights. The notification counted down as she hit each one. '3 Explosive bolts remaining...2...1...' Fluttershy's hoof hovered over the last button. She was worried what she'd find outside her pod, worried about what she might have to do. She glanced at her photo of Angel again, which had fallen off the side of the pod and now rested at her hind legs. She swallowed hard, and pushed the final button with a bit more courage. The door hissed, steam pouring out of the edges, before finally blowing off, and revealing the two story drop to the street. The pegasus leapt out intending to glide down safely, when her wing suddenly crumpled and she went spiraling down, landing on her side with a dull thump on the metallic street. Her vision turned red at the edges and another notification popped up, warning that she'd started losing stamina. She spotted a health kiosk across the street and slowly dragged herself toward it, eventually able to walk well enough to get to it and reach for a medkit. The small white box popped open, and a healing spell activated, flowing over her body and concentrating itself on her broken wing. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief as her wing stretched out, perfectly mended by the spell. She gingerly put the box in the receptacle with a small "Thank you", and trotted down the road. She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the sound of someone else's footsteps on the cold metal. The sound was almost like that of a hoofstep, except more padded, Though Fluttershy could also make out the sound of a piece of metal hitting the floor as well, over and over. The sound of a methane re-breather could also be heard, along with barks, growls and odd squeaking. The Covenant had heard her pod, and were coming to investigate. Thinking quickly, she ducked behind a few stacked crates and peeked out between the cracks. The world was still dark to her, but another notification popped up telling the rookie soldier to activate her VISR mode. She complied, politely willing the magic in her helmet to do so. The intricate spells lining the ODST helmet glowed slightly, and suddenly the world began to light up, yellow-orange lines spreading out and shaping the world around her. Fluttershy's delight at being able to see the world was short lived, as the lines turned red as they outlined her worst fear: A Brute, standing as tall as Princess Celestia, was walking down the street to her drop pod with an entourage of smaller Grunts. She fought back the urge to scream, though her mind raced and tried to do so anyways. The Covenant troops marched past, ignoring the pegasus's hiding spot. The Brute stopped for a second and sniffed the air, but fortunately Fluttershy's scent was masked by the smoke rising from a nearby fire and another smell that she couldn't quite recognize. Eventually the enemy troops moved on, leaving a shaking pegasus behind. As soon as she was sure they were out of sight, she snuck up the hill and ducked into an alley. A few rats scattered off trash bags as Fluttershy ran past, trying to go as deep down as she could. In her panic she almost ran into the wall at the end. Leaning on it, she began trying to access her comm channel furiously. She took note of the fact that it was now 22:02, almost 6 hours since the drop, but let the fact slide as she was a bit preoccupied. "Rainbow...? Rainbow Dash...? Twilight? Applejack? Rarity?" she almost cried into the radio. "...Captain Spitfire?" In desperation she screamed the only name she could still think of. "PINKIEEEE!!!" All she got was radio silence. Of course, Pinkie wouldn't answer. Last she heard she was on the Cairo orbital defense platform. So this was it. She was truly and utterly alone. She could think of nothing left to do except sit there and cry. That is, nothing until she heard the Covenant patrol acting up. She slowly walked out and looked over at them, as a few Grunts began swatting at the air. Fluttershy hovered over, being careful not to use her boosters and alert them all. She landed in a small overhang, hiding behind one of the support pillars so she could watch. The Grunts were swatting at a small bird flying around them. The pegasus gasped slightly when she saw it look at her and wink. It was trying to give her a chance to run. Its effort was short-lived, however, as the Brute leader caught the bird in its massive paw and crushed it, giving a freakish grin as blood spurted out between its fingers. It then looked down at one of the Grunts. "Do not waste my time with such worthless trash." The Grunt nodded in panic, but before he could give a verbal reply his head exploded. The Brute wiped the blue blood from his eyes and looked around for the perpetrator. The other two Grunts ragdolled, clean bullet holes between their eyes, before the Brute saw who was responsible. Fluttershy had popped out of cover and had her pistol at the ready, still smoking at her side. The pistol drooped as the SMG on her other side angled itself at the Brute. Inside the helmet, Fluttershy was enraged. She was in the position for her legendary "Stare", but the helmet obscured her eyes so instinct did the next best thing. With three Covenant down, her anger was all being directed at the Brute who was, to say the least, a bit stunned. The targeting reticle on her HUD switched from the pistol's small, precise crosshairs to the wider and less focused one of the SMG. A steady stream of bullets shot past her and hit the Brute's shield, which shimmered with each impact. Halfway through the clip the shield burst, the gorilla-like alien roaring at the frail pony. The reticle switched again, and just as the Brute lunged for her its brain had a narrow piece of metal propelled through it. The dead body flipped up, landing on its back from the impact of the shot. The bird's corpse, still in its hand, rolled out onto the cold street. Fluttershy stood there breathing heavily for a minute. Eventually her rage subsided, and the grim scene finally had its impact. The pool of blood from her final kill spread to her front boots and she screamed, leaping back. She immediately began running around to each corpse and frantically apologizing, ending with the headless Grunt who got three times as many apologies. Eventually she finally stopped apologizing and went back down the street, dragging her hooves partly in an attempt to get the blood off. She ascended the slope near where she had hidden earlier, and took up a sniping position. Her outburst left the dawning realization that she wouldn't be able to survive without killing. That did not, however, stop the kind pony from apologizing after each shot at a few more patrols that began crossing a nearby plaza. After dispatching the final patrol with a grenade, (sorrysorrysorrysorry!!!) her HUD dropped off another notification that seemed more like instructions. "You have been seperated from your ODST squadmates," it read. "Contact city Superintendent for help." The message closed before Fluttershy could try and ask who the Superintendent was or where he or she was at, but then something extremely peculiar happened. A phone began to ring. The noise startled her at first, what with the disturbingly quiet city, but eventually she located the source: a pay phone near an office building. After searching the immediate area to make sure nopony else was there who the call might be meant for, Fluttershy removed her helmet and cautiously lifted the receiver to her head. "Umm...hello?" The reply she got was ear-splitting. an odd, whale-like whistle made grating by all the static across the connection. Despite all this, she thought she could make out at least one word in the noise. HELP Fluttershy dropped the receiver, which landed atop her helmet and spewed sparks. When it finally fizzled out, the pay phone's light had turned off and Fluttershy took the opportunity to collect her helmet. She donned it, letting the spells within start up again. As soon as it was fully functional, a message popped up. >...< <<>> >...< AUTH: [FIRE.V.500341(S1)] SEC: [ONI.PRTCL-1A] PASSWORD: [VERGIL] CONNECTION ESTABLISHED! Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. The Superintendent was one of those magic constructs that Twilight had told her about that were able to work inside computers. She trotted over to a bench and sat down as the Superintendent began to integrate into her helmet. >>>WRITING CITY MAP SPELL<<< >...< The message faded away, then a short jingle played as a map took up the whole of the visor. The map was varying shades of blue and orange, with a small green arrow in the middle. Her name was displayed under the little arrow, and she began to move about, watching as the arrow playfully followed her movements. However, she decided to hold still when she walked into the bench she was just sitting on. She sat through the tutorials for moving the cursor, zooming in and out, and placing and cycling waypoints, when a beacon popped up on the far side of the city sector in a place called Hayari Plaza. The mare's cyan eyes widened when she read what her HUD had to say about it. "Hayari Plaza is the last known location of an ODST squadmate." Fluttershy galloped off towards the beacon, going headlong into a streetlamp. Once she recovered her bearings and let the messages and tutorial about her objectives finish, she shut off the map and made a beeline for the waypoint. Evey door she encountered was locked, however, and a large shutter blocked off road access. As she sulked back to the pay phone, a flickering screen caught her eye. Making sure her visor wasn't playing tricks on her, she popped off her helmet. Sure enough, one sign that originally had an advertisement now had a detour sign. As Fluttershy approached it, another sign lit up, pointing in the same direction as the last. As she stood there watching, all the signs on the street changed, car alarms went off, and the roadlights lit up. All of them making a path for her to follow. The lone mare smiled and let out a single tear before donning her helmet and happily walking down the path, now not so alone in the empty city. ======================================= After a small struggle through a miniature park, the rookie made it to her destination. Walking into the building's lobby, the edges of Fluttershy's HUD glowed blue and the waypoint beacon on her compass stayed where it was. The lobby itself was littered with bodies, both Equestrian and alien. She went to the nearest soldier, a griffin with plasma burns down the length of his spine, and gingerly closed his eyes. She also released her SMG from the weapon niche at her side and replaced it with the griffon's assault rifle, promising to put it to good use as the HUD's reticle adjusted to show that it was now in her control. All the other doors were locked except one that led upstairs, torn open by the dead Brute nearby. Treading carefully up the stairs and around the luminescent bloodstains, she made her way to the top of the building. On the third floor, one of the doors opened to reveal a pair of Jackals, which Fluttershy hurled a frag grenade at in panic. She turned back around the corner to apologize again, when a horrifying sight appeared to her. Up against the far wall was the corpse of a pony that had been viciously torn open. A quick look at one of the Jackals confirmed her suspicions, as some of the pony's intestines hung from its long, toothy jaw. Fighting back the nausea, the pegasus climbed the rest of the way up the stairs and down another hallway, this one ending in a somewhat spacious office. Outside a nearby window, she could see a sign saying "Hayari Plaza" on it and just below that she could see the smoking crater of an ODSP drop pod.She turned back to run down the stairs when something caught her attention. Buried in a broken monitor was a helmet.She curiously went over to it and attempted to yank it out, to which it responded by popping out and flying across the room, knocking the mare onto her back. As the helmet rolled back, she saw the huge slash in the front, ending just above the visor where the owner's cutie mark was emblazoned: a lightning bolt on fire at the top. It was Spitfire's Recon helmet. Fluttershy slowly got to her hooves and picked up the helmet, walking over to the window to look out at the plaza. From somewhere in her mind, the words of her squadmates came drifting back. "Ya'll gonna tell us his name, Gunney?" "MISS Naval Intelligence. Our new boss" "Miss?" "So check you mouths, find your chairs...and get set for a combat drop!" Dash hadn't told anyone it was Spitfire back then. As she sat there wondering why, her VISR database popped up, playing a recording. The Superintendent icon was floating up in the corner as well, a sad look on its "face" Fluttershy sat there and watched in silence, hoping for some explanation of what happened in the past six hours...